Chapter 5

“Chandra,” Danyun whispered into her ear.

Her lashes stayed lowered, feathered against her skin.

Danyun shook her shoulder. “We must leave. We are not safe here.” His words received no response from her. She remained unconscious and limp in his arms. He laid her on the ground. His gaze roamed over her prone form. Her chest rose and descended, so undetectable. He bent his head near her nose.

A light air blew across his face.

Danyun breathed a sigh of relief until the smell of decaying bodies assaulted his senses. His jaw tightened. He looked at the sky, the same direction the demon headed. His hunter’s instinct whispered to him to go after Gauldor, while another part of him wanted him to stay with Chandra. He hesitated, debating with himself on whether he should leave or stay with her.

The orbs buzzed at him, as if signaling for him to do something.

Their movements broke into his revere. He stared at them in wonderment. None of their sounds or their flickering lights meant anything to him. He didn’t understand them. There was only one thing he could figure—they wanted him to protect Chandra. He picked her up again and carried her toward the direction of her home.

Once he reached her brick building, he flew up. Transitioning his body and hers into phantom figures, he drifted through the walls and entered her home. He headed straight for what looked like a perfect resting place to lie down. After he deposited her on the cushioned furniture, he sat next to her and watched her. Through the whole journey, she never moved. Not one twitch of her body. That frightened him. Knowing that he failed in his mission. He failed her.

The orbs bounced on her face. Their flurry of movements gave the impression they attempted to revive her, but nothing they did changed her condition.

Danyun grew more worried. Witches possessed regenerative powers. Chandra should have recovered from her possession. Unless…the demon had infected her.

Troubled, he brushed his fingers over her face and shoulders.

A low moan, barely audible, uttered from her lips.

He stared at her mouth. “Chandra.” He cupped the nobs of her elbows. “Wake up.”

She whimpered and her eyes flickered.

Good.

The thought of her dying pulled at his heart until he felt an unbearable ache.

Danyun paused. Why should he care if she lived or died? He valued her for only one purpose—the means to get him home.

Even as he stated the disclaimer, his gaze sought her face, her lips, and wondered how they would feel against his mouth. Startled by his thoughts, he stood up abruptly, but a strong force pushed him back down.

He glanced over his shoulder. The blue orb bounced off his nose. It spun to the side of his face. He watched as it dove for Chandra’s stomach. The other two orbs followed its movement to intertwine and form a handprint. They hummed until he figured out that they wanted him to place his palm on the image.

As he laid his hand on her, his skin vibrated.

Heat, electrical heat, pulsed through his fingers, surging through his flesh like a high-powered voltage. He wanted to snatch his hand away, but he ignored the discomfort and held on fast.

Chandra had to get better. Without her, he didn’t know what he would do—correction; he didn’t know how he would get home.

“Wake up.” He placed his hand on her shoulder to shake her, but the second he touched her, his fingers stroked her shoulder, caressing her neck, face, and arm. “You have to fight this. Fight the demon. If you don’t—it will kill someone else.”

Danyun settled his palm on her belly, stroking the soft skin with his thumb. He took a seat near her hip and leaned close to her ears and whispered, “I need you.”

The truth hit him. He did need her—more than his desire to go home.

“You have some of your family’s powers. Use them to heal yourself. Don’t let the demon win.” His lips brushed over the soft shell of her ear as he spoke more encouragements.

Chandra coughed. Seconds later, her lashes fluttered several times until she opened her eyes. “What happened?”

“You were momentarily possessed.”

She shot up.

He shrank back, just far enough to avoid the oncoming collision with her head on his chin.

“What? Oh, shit. Is it still in me?” She batted at her clothes. “Will I need to see a priest? Father Kurt-Patrick can do the exorcism.”

“If you are talking about ridding yourself of the demon, then you have nothing to worry about. It’s gone.”

Her body shifted under his fingers until the curves of her breast accidentally touched him.

“But, I still feel it inside of me. It feels like something is crawling under my skin.”

He fought the impulse to flick his thumb on the side on the firm globe.

“It will pass.” However, he doubted the hunger coursing through his flesh would ever diminish.

Tears filled her eyes, making them resemble the floods on the Emerald Moon. “I thought I was going to die. Darkness was everywhere. It swallowed me up until I heard Esha, Corna and Tina calling me.”

Danyun nodded. He understood what Chandra experienced. She suffered through the epoc, where a spirit traveled between life and death. In the different realms of the dead, there existed a gate—an opened one. Some spirits encouraged those on the edge of death to cross over it and die. Other more benevolent spirits warned against such an action.

Maybe, Chandra saw someone—a perished member of her coven. “Your sisters called you?”

“No. My parents didn’t have other children.”

He kept forgetting that she lived with humans most of her life.

Absentmindedly, he rubbed her side, brushing a path from her breast to her hip. “Then, who called you?”

Chandra smiled as her eyes lighted on the flying orbs. “My guides. They told me what to do to set myself free.”

The colorful spheres rotated around Chandra and Danyun.

“I’m glad you are all right. I thought…” His words faltered as his throat closed up.

“What?” She sounded so wistful.

He gazed upon her green eyes, their depth warm and welcoming. His hand cupped her chin.

“I thought, I lost—” Before he changed his mind about what he planned to do, or think about the ramification of getting involved with a witch, he swooped down to claim her plump lips.

Sparks of electricity shot out of him… out of her. He didn’t know which one of them released the energy, and he didn’t care. His lips drank from her, tasted her with a vigorous thirst.

His tongue swirled around hers. He savored her.

So divine, so sweet.

He yearned for more. His lips plundered her mouth, desperate and hungry for more of her as his fingers traveled up her head and tangled in her wavy black strands.

This was not a shy woman. For everything he gave, she took. Her arms enfolded him, tightened around his neck, dragging him closer to her. He didn’t fight her. He came willingly, laying on her as he hurried to remove her clothes.

In the back of his mind, he knew he should stop touching her, that the adrenaline of dealing with the demon brought on the desire they felt, and that she lacked the full capacity to realize what would happen once all their clothes came off. He tried to input a rational thought into his hormonal brain, but the urgency to caress her and feel her naked flesh upon his wouldn’t allow him to change his mind until he remembered his honor.

Danyun eased a few inches away. “I must stop.”

“No. Don’t stop.” She tugged at his head. “Danyun, I need you. I need to know I’m alive… that… that thing is not inside me.”

He hesitated.

“Please.”

In her eyes, he saw desperation. The same thing burned a trail of need in his gut. Before he could fight it, he groaned and sealed his lips on hers.

Their clothes fell and disappeared as if by magic. He kissed her throat, then her collarbone.

She uttered a soft cry. Her hands moved along his back as they massage his muscles.

His lips journeyed to the slopes of her breast. He reached for the smooth brown flesh, his fingers trembling as he grazed her dusky nipples.

In absolute awe by the splendor of her nude body, he stared at her, absorbing every inch of her uncovered flesh. He brushed his lips against her nipple. Instantly, it puckered. He flicked his tongue across its tips, then sucked on the tight nub.

Chandra moaned. Her hips thrust against his as if she begged him to fill her.

But Danyun wasn’t ready to satisfy her, at least, not yet.

He caressed every part of her, memorized the texture of her curves, and the way she responded to his touch. The second he slid his index finger along the outer shell of her swollen folds, another bolt of electricity jolted through him. She aroused him beyond any woman from his past sexual encounters. His cock pulsed, hardened until stiffening like a steel pole. His body urged him to end his suffering, but he couldn’t, not until he stored enough memories of her.

“Danyun… I… I can’t take this.”

“Soon you will.” To his ears, his voice sounded gruff and out of breath. “You will take all of me.” He slipped one finger inside her slick walls. Going ever so slowly, he trembled again when her muscles closed around him. Adding another finger, he increased his pace, and so did she. Her legs gripped his hand, while her hips pushed up to meet his downward movement. With her lips parted, her breath rushed in and out. She held on to his shoulders, digging her nails into his skin with every stroke. The heat between them inflamed him further as he saw it reflected in her gaze. Her hands glided from his arms to his hips, biting into his skin.

Chandra arched against him. She moaned so loud it reverberated in his groin. He removed his hand from her wetness and replaced it with his rigid cock.

A sigh expelled from her lips.

****

Satisfaction hit her when he final entered her. She moved against him, up and down, her inner muscles contracted as his movement deepened. Each one of his plunges took her breath away. His chest rubbed across her sensitive breast. She gasped while she wrapped legs around his hips, hugging him closer and tighter to her.

Then, he quickened, touching a sensitive spot no man had ever before. She gasped for breath, trying to say his name and to hold on to the view of his face, but the onslaught of passion was too much. It swept her away, splintering into pieces, where a blinding light cover her vision and her screams echoed in her ears.